Home/National/ Trump says he fired Comey because of Clinton investigation

Trump says he fired Comey because of Clinton investigation

Sandy Mccarthy |Friday, May 19, 2017

Trump is certain to face a barrage of questions unrelated to their meeting, after reports this week that the White House was aware former national security adviser Michael Flynn was under investigation before the president's inauguration, that Mr. Trump possibly revealed classified information to Russian diplomats, and that fired FBI Director James Comey said in a memo that Mr. Trump asked him to drop the FBI investigation into Flynn.

'He had the very poor performance on Wednesday, ' Trump said at a White House press conference Thursday, in reference to Comey's Senate testimony the week before his firing.

Today marked the first time since the appointment of a special counsel that Trump publicly addressed Comey's firing and the subsequent news of a memo written by the ex-FBI director.

"I respect the move, but the entire thing has been a witch hunt", Trump said. "Everybody thinks so. And again, we have to get back to working our country properly so that we can take care of the problems that we have".

Absent from Trump's reasoning was the FBI's investigation of his campaign's contacts with Russian Federation - something Trump told NBC was on his mind when he made the decision - as a new, more independent Russian Federation investigation gets underway. "We're going to have a director that's going to be outstanding".

"That's what I want to be focused on, because there's no collusion". And I thought that was was something that was bad, ' said Trump.

"But when I made that decision, I actually thought it would be a bipartisan decision".

"No, No. Next question", Trump told reporters. "And even, you could say, directly or indirectly, with respect to the much more successful Trump campaign".

Reporters pressed the Colombian president to comment on Trump's "America First" policy and the proposed southern border wall, but Santos sidestepped controversy by praising cooperation with the U.S. in ending the decades-long conflict in his country. "I hope you can let this go", referring to the inquiry into Flynn's actions.

When Santos was asked if he had any suggestions for Trump on how to weather bad press, he demurred.

Trump himself frequently brought up Abedin on the campaign trail, and his supporters cheered "lock her up" in reference to Clinton at his rallies.

"I don't think I'm in a position to give any advice to President Trump".